


The Chapel Room

by Newhieghts



Series: Character Introspection [6]
Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Aoi's never ending loyalty to Akane because that's my brand, Gen, God Complex, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Religion, its just comparisons to god, to sme extent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23559934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Newhieghts/pseuds/Newhieghts
Summary: Of all the rooms in this building, Aoi's least favourite is the Chapel Room.Maybe it makes more sense to say the incinerator, or the staircase he will bleed out on.Maybe it makes sense to hate every room equally.This is the room where he will lose.This is the room where he will lose as Zero, the fallible god.
Relationships: Kurashiki Akane & Kurashiki Aoi
Series: Character Introspection [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1260443
Kudos: 16





	The Chapel Room

The chapel room is Aoi’s least favourite room in this place.

It might make more sense to say the incinerator, or the first class bathroom, or the stairs, or any other room where somebody he cares about dies. Akane, Clover, himself and everyone else.

Nobody dies in the chapel room. 

There might be something to say about that, Aoi muses, that being close to god; a belief in god; a love in god, then you never truly die. The closest thing he has to a god is Akane, and her god is Junpei. Worshipping false idols. Worshipping a boy.

God or not, she may be, Aoi’s fate rests on Akane. Akane controls him, and he is dutiful to her, to only her, to damn the others and heed her every word. He is a disciple, so to speak.

God or not, he may be, Junpei weaves the path of death or salvation. Junpei is all powerful, all mighty, though he does not realise it. All the cards are at hand. Aoi hopes Junpei knows how to play, how to pick.

God or not, the place makes his skin crawl. 

This is where he will lose, both as Zero and a brother. This is the room of necessary evils. This is the room of dashed hopes, and a reunion he will never see. The room where he will threaten to shoot his friends. This is the room his sister will succumb to that fiery fever in and where Junpei will mourn. 

This is the room where nine years will go to waste.

He doesn't know if this is the timeline that will culminate in any of those outcomes. He doesn't know if he has done those things already. He doesn't care to know. He does not need more blood on his hands, nor grief in his chest.

He knows, no matter the timeline, that he will do terrible deeds. 

Murderer. The word catches in his throat and constricts his airway. Murderer. 

No better than Hongou. No better than the bastard company that got fat with power over his freakish mind. No better than Clover in a grieving insanity. It makes him sick. 

He might not have held a knife or fired a gun or swung an axe, but he knew. He knew that his actions would kill. Just as he knew his actions would save Akane. 

He thinks that in a tossup between four guilty men and one innocent girl -- and his sister, no less -- it would be a no brainer. And it is. He’d kill them tenfold for even a glimmer of chance of Akane’s survival. He’d kill them tenfold for the horrors he endured at their hands.

He just wonders if Akane is so innocent. 

He knows he is not.

He thinks he deserves the axe that Clover swung into his skull. 

He looks at the grand nine door, and then to the wooden coffin. If all goes well, that coffin will not be a final resting place. A temporary hold. For the greater good, he reminds himself. He looks back to the big nine doors. For the greater good. 

Damn the others; devote to Akane. 

Such has been life for nine years. Such will be life for as many years that hold onto him. Life, life, and so on. This game will not end as simply as Akane believes. It’s hardly a game, but at least games finish. 

This will breath down his neck for as long as he shall live. 

If all goes well; that’ll be for a while. If all goes wrong; well, maybe he will escape guilt and grief in death. There is no middle ground. There is only a good end and a bad end, and there are many ways for this to go wrong. 

Some people would pray to god. He’s certainly in the right place for it. Amongst the polished pews and velvety carpet and golden lights; there is something holy about it. Probably, Aoi reasons, because it's not grey. flooded, or a shithole. 

Because nobody dies here. It’s protected, somehow. Sacred. 

He would pray to god, but Akane can't hear him.

He would pray to god, but he’s already condemned. His prayers will go unanswered. 

He’ll commit sacrilege here. To take his god at gunpoint, to threaten, to blaspheme. 

This is the room where the floors will smoke. This is the room where he threatens murder. This is the room he wishes he wasn’t in. 

There are just hours before the game is set to start. All the players are in position, all the doors are locked and all their keys hidden. 

He should be pacing about on c-deck to coincidentally run into the others and set his script in motion. 

But he’s here. In the chapel room. Not praying. Not doing anything. 

He stretches up from the hard wood of the pew. Does god — the real one, that is — forgive sinners like him? Does he deserve penance for his crimes? 

He sits on the steps of the coffin’s display. It is empty right now. It shouldn’t be full at all. 

It will be. It has to be. Those are the rules. Those are Akane’s commandments. To disobey is to welcome death. To disobey is killing Akane. So the coffin, he reasons, Light has to be locked in. 

He has it perfectly planned. It’s been planned. He could do it in his sleep and he’s never even done it before. 

He’s seen the inside of the coffin, and heard the lock beep. He’s touched the robes that Aoi will dress him in. 

Christ, he’s imagined it all. 

But he’s never done it. In this timeline at least. 

He will. He must. Damn the others, devoted to Akane. That is the mantra he lives by. That is the mantra he will die by. He mustn't deviate. This is it. This is nine years in the making, and it could well be nine hours in the breaking. 

He doesn't get a say. Once the doors unlock, it's no longer in his hands and no longer in Akane’s. It all rests on Junpei. 

It all rests on a boy who doesn’t know he holds Aoi’s world in his palm. 

He wonders if Junpei is religious. 

He wonders if it will make any sort of difference. What good is a god that cannot reach you? What good are the Japanese gods across the vast ocean?

The only god in here is Zero. 

All of them will abide by his commandments in his walls. 

Zero is the only fallible god he knows. The only god that relies on his followers to do his bidding. 

He hates the chapel room.


End file.
